Posts Tagged ‘World Chess Championship’

Alas, just three games (and two big blunders) later, the game in my last post remains Kamsky’s sole win over Topalov. The latter, having won the match with a score of 4.5-2.5, now moves on to face Anand for the title of World Chess Champion. As for Kamsky, they were speculating in the live commentary today on the ICC that he may once again leave the Royal Game. I hope not, but time will tell.

A very exciting game today! Everyone watching live on the ICC was on the edge of their seats with anticipation as Kramnik looked sure to notch his first win. Alas, it was not to be, and it looks as though he’ll join the likes of Kasparov in more ways than one, i.e., by going an entire World Chess Championship match sans full point.

As a teen, in the good ‘ole days of Candidates Matches and World Championship battles that actually had enough games to reduce the luck factor, I used to have the draw posted on my door, so I could follow along and see the future pairings, etc..

These were also the days when there wasn’t live internet coverage. I remember buying the official match newsletter for one of the Kasparov-Karpov matches. I think it was 1990. It arrived in the mail a day or two after each game with some good analysis. It was always so exciting to come home from school to one of these two to three page write-us. I’d immediately sit down on the couch and play it out on the coffee table.

To relive that experience, though at a much accelerated pace, I’ve filled in the gaps on FIDE’s wallchart HERE, which I’ll be keeping up to date as each match completes. You can see some of the big names are already through to the next round based on no-shows.

Yesterday, Round 1 tiebreaks saw Kadimova taking Paehtz to an Armageddon game before the latter pulled it out. Surely not the start she must’ve expected. The other tiebreak victors were Katerine Rohonyan (missed mentioning she’s another American in the competition) who defeated Zhukova, Socko over Foisor in an Armageddon, Moser against Mkrtchian (6 letters before we see a vowel), and Ju over Bojkovic.